Help -- occasional noise with USB mic (Mac Pro 1.1)

danilche

Registered
Hi all,

I am having a problem which has becomes rather aggravating. I play World of Warcraft, and any serious gaming there requires a microphone. The problem is, of course, that my Mac -- the original Mac Pro, version 1.1 from 2006 -- has no actual mic port, only line-in.

The obvious solution was to buy the USB sound device, which works fine most of the time -- except that occasionally my mic input starts sounding horribly noisy and distorted, almost like the sampling rate goes through the floor. people variously call me Robocop, Dark Helmet, and a variety of other, less flattering names.

The problems stems neither from the mic nor from the USB device, as I already tried replacing both (I tried to different-brand headsets and two different-brand USB sound devices).

This originally happened under 10.5. I had hoped than an upgrade to 10.6 will fix it, but no luck.

Also, a similar problem afflicts my iCam -- periodically I start sounding all noisy and grinding when speaking into it.

Does anyone have any idea what may be going on, and how I could possibly solve this issue? Either a way to solve the USB mic problem, or a way to utilize the microphone with my Mac Pro's line-in port without too high a cost (mic preamps tend to be kinda expensive), would be fine.

Thanks in advance.
 
Doubt it's your problem, but I was getting interference from my cell phone until discovered it and moved it away from the computer. Also, How 'bout fluorescent lights nearby?
 
I have this problem with my A4Tech webcam, and also I had it with another USB mic, if I remember correctly, a MacMice MicFlex. I think the trouble started when I migrated to a Mac Mini with Core 2 Duo processor. A "Genius" at the Apple Store looked up the issue and responded that some USB mics have this problem with some Macs, and the only way to fix it is to get a different mic or different Mac. Not very good!
 
Back
Top